Φιλοκτήτης
Philoctetes
Sophocles · first staged City Dionysia, 409 BC · first prize
The Greeks left Philoctetes on Lemnos with a wound that would not heal; now Troy cannot fall without his bow. Odysseus sends young Neoptolemus to trick him into coming to Troy.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Οδ.Odysseus
- Νε.Neoptolemus
- Χο.Chorus
- Φι.Philoctetes
- Εμ.Merchant
- Ηρ.Heracles
Translations
- R. C. Jebbprose · 1883–1900 · aligned by line · with Jebb's Greek
- F. Storrverse · 1913 · aligned by speech · with Storr's Greek
- Ian Johnston (VIU)verse · aligned by speech · with Dain & Mazon's Greek
Greek texts
- Dain & Mazon, Sophocle, vol. 31960
- F. Storr, Sophocles, vol. 21913
- R. C. Jebb, Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, part 4, The Philoctetes1898
Cite as Soph. Phil. 1–1471
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
Nine years ago the Greeks abandoned Philoctetes on Lemnos with a festering wound in his foot. Now a prophecy says Troy cannot fall without him and his bow, the bow of Heracles. Odysseus brings the young Neoptolemus, Achilles' son, to trick him into sailing. Neoptolemus wins the sick man's trust, gets the bow, and cannot go through with it: he confesses, gives the bow back, and agrees to take Philoctetes home instead. Heracles appears from the sky and sends them both to Troy, where Philoctetes will be healed and kill Paris.
Drawing: Line drawing after the Attic red-figure squat lekythos in the manner of the Eretria Painter, c. 420 BCE, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 56.171.58; traced from photographs by Marie-Lan Nguyen (CC BY 2.5) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0), changed.